Abstract

The thesis argues against the "death" of art interpretation from Hegel's definition of Darstellung and Vorstellung, his criticism of "irony" , his views on genius and originality, and the systematic distinction between "The Ideal" and "The Development of the Ideal" . ;Two texts neglected in the study of his aesthetics are given careful consideration, the "Psychology" and "The Artist" . ;Darstellung is interpreted to suggest artistic meaning that is exhaustively contained within the phenomenological object and irreducible to any analytical discourse centering on an intentional subject. Such discourses are associated with "significational" objects , perceptibles by means of which anthropocentric meanings are communicated in the culture. ;The anthropocentric use of art if related to the concepts of "form" , "wondering" and "worship" . The three forms i.e., "Symbolic," "Classical" and "Romantic" are argued to represent stages in the evolution of culture from a duplicitous to an authentic recognition of art's absoluteness. It is concluded that the only death that is consistent with Hegel's aesthetic and metaphysical argument is the death of form